Florida Football: Vanderbilt will be Billy Napier’s first test with a trap game

Early in the week, members of Florida football informed the media that Billy Napier implemented a rule this week that the Gators were not allowed to talk about the weather for the upcoming game against Vanderbilt. By Florida standards, it’s going to be cold in Nashville. The high on Saturday is 46 degrees with the low getting down to 21.

Combined with the fact that Vanderbilt plays in a stadium that would be barely acceptable for a top-tier high school in Texas, let alone an SEC school, and the Gators having to play their Neighbors to the West six days later, the Commodores have Napier channeling his inner Admiral Ackbar this week.

Florida Football: It’s a trap!

Florida is coming off a cathartic win against USC Jr. where everything (minus the special teams) seemed to go right. Florida football is in a position where a win in Tallahassee next week can put a bow on the season and give the Gators some much-needed momentum heading into the offseason.

While Vanderbilt as a football program doesn’t present anything that should scare Florida on paper (their talent composite is ranked 61st while Florida is ranked 12th), it’s all the surrounding circumstances that should scare Napier. We know from past encounters with Vanderbilt that Florida is vulnerable to struggle.

Napier comes from the Nick Saban coaching tree and one of the hallmarks of Saban’s programs is that when faced with an overmatched opponent, Saban tends to get even more animated and expects even more perfection.

Some of Saban’s most legendary sidelines rants have come when winning 49-3 against an FCS opponent.

For Napier, this is his first true test of how to handle a trap game. Vanderbilt isn’t good, but they beat Kentucky last week. The same Kentucky team Florida couldn’t solve. A true sign of program growth for Florida is if they come out and put the game out of reach by halftime. The Gators are favored by 14, and anything less than covering that spread will feel like a disappointment.

A win by less than 14 will get the job done and this game will be largely forgotten about, but the last three visits to Nashville have been:

• 38-17 win (2020)
• 37-27 win (2018)
• 13-6 win (2016)

When faced with wounded prey under Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen, they were hesitant to make the kill. After those games we heard all the excuses of why the games were close:

• It’s a low energy stadium
• It’s cold
• Gators have bigger games coming up
• Gators underestimated Vanderbilt

The inconsistency and the excuses are what ultimately led to their dismissals.

Napier showed signs last week that the Gators are starting to show no mercy when given the chance. A blowout win on Saturday would show that his messaging is in fact starting to get through to the program.

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